Christ-Based Leadership: Applying the Bible and Today's Best Leadership Models to Become an Effective Leader

INTRODUCTION

Are You Leadership Literate?

This book came to life in my spirit on an unforgettable day in the early
1990s as I was reading global forecaster Alvin Toffler's The Third Wave.
Toffler had always been quite prescient about the future, and his well-known
statement struck me to the core:

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and
write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.

At that time, well into my first years in ministry, I longed to learn the
essence of good leadership. I also had a sneaking suspicion that I might need to
unlearn and relearn a few things along the way. At any rate, energizing my quest
were two different sets of motivations, each based on a leadership model.

The first bubbled up from my unsatisfying experiences with a certain model of
small-group ministry. My senior pastor had asked me to apply it as soon as I
arrived, and though I chafed at its top-down, authoritarian approach, I used the
program "successfully" for a number of years.

Nevertheless, it was exhausting. What enormous effort just to sustain the
leaders' vision! People weren't enjoying this, I wasn't enjoying it, and the
fruit produced in participants' lives hardly resembled the fruit of the Spirit.
Where was the love, the joy, the peace among us? We settled instead for much
division, consistent strife, little unity, and feeble enthusiasm.

* * *

I decided to look for a new way to do small-group ministry. While reading
Toffler's book, it occurred to me that the business community, out of necessity,
was moving into innovative structures to accomplish its goals in the work force.
This secular marketplace movement, which was starting to look strangely similar
to my own direction, was crucially based upon a deeper understanding of
leadership. Could I learn from the business gurus while maintaining a thoroughly
biblical philosophy of ministry? The idea intrigued me.

* * *

Before I continue, please allow me a moment to review the basic thesis of
The Third Wave. Toffler suggests that civilization has subsisted in three
basic structures, or "waves," down through history.

The agricultural first wave involved living and laboring on extended family
farms (which is still applicable for much of the world).

In the second wave, the industrial revolution, people began working in
hierarchical organizations built around command-and-control models of
leadership. The era of the machine was built upon mechanistic efficiency.

Then, around 1955, we entered the third wave: the information age. Here and
now, Toffler says, a new working structure is evolving: less hierarchical,
interdependent organizations that gather around communities of commitment. Peter
Drucker would later call these "organic organizations," because the master
image is no longer the lifeless machine but the living organism.

As I swam around in cutting-edge business thinking, one day it hit me: the
New Testament uses the organic as its master image: the body of Christ.
However, while we've had this theology of an organic organization from the
beginning, the business community seemed to be moving from theory (its
"theology") to application with more determination than the church.

This was out of necessity, of course, to meet the demands of a rapidly
changing, swirling, exciting, startling world: Globalization. Computerization.
Postmodernism and Gen Y. Talk radio, bloggers, and eBay. How else would they
survive, thrive, and get their message across? Leaders in every field rose
up ... to lead. They tackled the problem on all fronts—they had to, for profits
must not fall.

We, the church, on the other hand: Have our prophets fallen? It seemed to me
we were holding on to second-wave forms of leadership and structure at all
costs. We continued to create and maintain top-down, hierarchical,
command-and-control, mechanistic organizations. Sound at all like your church?

That very day I committed myself to reading and digesting as much of the
business revolution material as I could find. I drilled far into insights about
effective leadership and people-empowering structures. I wanted to learn, in
full detail, what it would mean to lead an organic organization. And I figured I
had an advantage: My organization is indwelt by the Spirit of God himself.

HOW DO YOU VIEW YOUR WORLD?

The more I read business literature, the
more I saw two profoundly distinct schools of leadership thought. In his
wonderful book Leading Change, James O'Toole describes this worldview
conflict; the first is the Realist-relativist-contingency school, which
holds the following assumptions about the world and people (and therefore
leadership):

People are by nature evil and self-interested, thus they must be controlled;

Human groups are given to anarchy;

Progress comes from discipline, order, and obeying tradition;

Order arises from leadership;

There can only be one leader of a group;

The leader is the dominant member of the group;

Leadership is an exercise of power;

Any sign of weakness will undercut the leader's authority;

Loyalty, effort, and change can be commanded successfully.

O'Toole spends several chapters showing that this view doesn't work in the
long run because it's an amoral leadership style that harbors a built-in
self-destructiveness:

Leaders in the Realist School are prone, when pressed by the inevitable
exigencies of public life, to behave in ways that destroy the trust of
followers. Because people will not follow the lead of those they mistrust,
contingency leaders will often encounter insurmountable obstacles on the road to
leading change.

By contrast, Rushmorean leaders have remarkably different assumptions
about the world and people. "Rushmorean" refers to the character and values of
people like Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt. They possess
authenticity, integrity, vision, passion, conviction, and courage, and they lead
by example rather than coercion. Rushmorean leadership is moral leadership, and
its axioms would read:

People are by nature a mixture of potential for great good or great harm,
and they thrive in an environment of trust with accountability.

Human groups tend toward self-ordering states, given the right parameters and
resources.

Progress comes from vision and values given as parameters, where
self-discipline, creativity, and passion are allowed to stretch people forward.

Order arises from common commitments to mission and common understandings of
values.

There are many types of leadership and leaders within an organization.

Different leadership energies are needed at different times to keep an
organization moving to its prime.

Leadership is an exercise of stewardship, where everyone shoulders the trust
given to the organization.

Weakness and vulnerability on teams create an atmosphere of trust, where
members feel needed for their strengths as well as needing others for the areas
where they do not have strengths.

In this approach, everyone involved buys into any change effort as members
together craft a common vision out of various agendas. In this way they capture
the best future for the organization and take advantage of the stakeholders'
diverse gifts and passions. As Toffler puts it:

No leader can command or compel change. Change comes about when followers
themselves desire it and seek it. Hence the role of the leader is to enlist the
participation of others as leaders of the effort. That is the sum and essence
not only of leading change but also of good management in general. In reality,
such leadership is extremely difficult because it is unnatural.

As I reflected on these contrasting paradigms regarding the world, people,
and leadership, I came back to one of Jesus' clearest statements. He too lifted
up a basic leadership contrast—the difference between leadership that reflects
God's kingdom and leadership that works against His purposes in the world.

"You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high
officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants
to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first
must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to
serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many."

Matthew 20:25-28

Peter reinforces Christ's words when writing to early church leaders:

To the elders among you, I appeal as a fellow elder, a witness of Christ's
sufferings and one who also will share in the glory to be revealed: Be shepherds
of God's flock that is under your care, serving as overseers—not because you
must, but because you are willing, as God wants you to be; not greedy for money,
but eager to serve; not lording it over those entrusted to you, but being
examples to the flock. And when the Chief Shepherd appears, you will receive the
crown of glory that will never fade away.

1 Peter 5:1-4

I began to see that the New Testament establishes a crystal-clear difference
between leadership that "lords it over others" and leadership that proceeds from
the Holy Spirit to build the kingdom. How similar to James O'Toole's
Realist/Rushmorean distinction! In fact, how similar to everything I'd been
reading in the business revolutionaries, those who knew that "business as usual"
must radically alter its approach in order to impact its world.

I was inspired by and excited about the possibilities. I also thought,
Wouldn't it be great to have a book that shows how scriptural truths can work
hand in hand with the best insights of business research?

That's what Christ-Based Leadership hopes to do. We'll explore in
detail the differences between these leadership types, launching into each theme
from a pivotal question appearing in each chapter title. The questions will
drive to the core of what today's leaders must be asking themselves in order to
choose between the pathways open to them. Each chapter will also compare the
components of leadership to the human body, showing by way of analogy the "look"
of health or disease in the organic organization.

A TALE OF TWO WISDOMS

Recall that I had two motivations
energizing my quest for excellent leadership. If the first was solidly
intellectual, the second was much more emotional and spiritual in nature. In the
years that followed, as I began working as a church consultant, I constantly
observed amoral-leadership assumptions working themselves out within
congregations.

The result? Pain!

Lots of pain was being created in the church, manifesting in all kinds of
ways. I could broadly categorize the hurt in three forms of woundedness:

(1) Missed opportunities for laypeople to live out their giftedness and
callings. They ended up in disillusionment and often rejected the institutional
church as a place of fulfilling their life's purpose.

(2) Hurt, confused, abused, and stifled staffers and layleaders. These folks
wanted to give their best to their leaders, but found the amoral leadership
patterns hindering and obstructive at least, offensive and destructive at worst.

(3) Divided and diminished congregations. Within their communities, they
never had the impact they were designed to have.

Alongside such
painful situations, though, I encountered hope-inducing examples of moral
leadership in action. These leaders had the opposite effect on laypeople,
staffers, and congregations. Where is all the pain? I wondered at first.
Then I realized how very different the assumptions about people and the world
were in these healthy scenarios. They blossomed with vitality and ministry,
bringing glory to God in myriad ways. There is something irrefutably wise about
working within Christ's body as if it were an organic organization. Which, of
course, it is!

Here, then, were two very different "wisdoms," those of which the apostle
James spoke long ago:

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by
deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor bitter envy
and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.
Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, of the
devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and
every evil practice. But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure;
then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit,
impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of
righteousness. --James 3:13-18

In each chapter ahead, while considering a key question about effective
leadership, we'll look at (1) the biblical wisdom supporting the principle
involved and (2) the specific business theory it upholds. Get ready to enjoy
"mini-book reviews" of pivotal volumes; those you don't yet own may end up on
your bookshelves eventually. My hope is that churches will begin applying these
wonderful principles, along with their moral bases and structural implications.
If this can ease and eliminate some of the pain caused by unbiblical,
hierarchical leadership patterns, I will be deeply gratified and grateful to
God.